Having been in the business of selling vacations for 19 years, Julie Arbelaez was ready for a getaway from her workspace. “I felt like a change of scenery,” she said. The challenge was symbolized by the slash in her business name: Peace Frogs Travel/Outfitters. The company is a hybrid, both travel agency and retail store.

“They were always considered separate,” she said. Peace Frogs’ longtime home in Barracks Road Shopping Center “wasn’t conducive to collaboration. I wanted to merge the two and have more of a team identity.”

She found a new spot in the Millmont Shops and enlisted Wolf Ackerman to create a design that would accommodate staff meetings, travel planning sessions, and browsing customers—bestowing both privacy and openness as needed. “A traditional arrangement of studs and drywall would not have worked,” said Dave Ackerman. “It would not have been open enough, and it would have been too expensive.”

Instead, the firm marked the outer walls for retail display and designed a core to occupy the center of the store, housing desks for four full-time staff, storage, and retail counters. This core shifts as it runs down the narrow space. “The most open, public part is at the front, and the dense, private part is at the back,” said Ackerman. “It’s a gradient, not a hard edge.”

As though it were a solid box that had had pieces selectively removed (creating desks, cubbies, and mini-hallways), the core is a lively zone that suggests exploration and surprise. Openings echo each other in different planes, and Arbelaez and her staff are able to connect through and around the structure. “I love it—being able to see through the other side and communicate with clients in different parts of the store,” she said.

A bold color choice—Benjamin Moore’s Grape Green—gives the entire store an up-to-the-minute look. “I wanted something a little bit shocking,” said Arbelaez, “like customers were coming into a space that felt more adventurous.”

Robin and Mary Felder like to call their place Monte Piccolo, meaning “tiny mountain.” That’s in deference to Thomas Jefferson, whose home was, of course, the “little mountain.” And while it may not be Monticello, there’s nothing small about the view from this elevated site in Ivy; you can see

Anyone with a fondness for Staunton—its well-kept, homey neighborhoods, walkable and engaging downtown and intact historical fabric—can appreciate the appeal of living a couple of blocks uphill from the center of town. Imagine it: You emerge from your house on foot and all but roll down to

Buildings reflect priorities. In 1949, when Jennifer Greenhalgh’s house on Park Street was built, kitchens were not the centerpieces they’ve become today. She and her husband Blake bought the colonial-style dwelling in 2008 and immediately set about making the kitchen more relevant to their

Local designer Jeannette Andamasaris wasn’t always into design. In fact, when she graduated from Ohio University, she had a degree in Marine Biology. But traveling around the world as a dancer honed her interest in architecture and other cultures and, while working as a performance artist, she

As a child, architect Robert Nichols was always fixing broken things and salvaging other people’s junk. And once he started creating new objects, he became even more hooked on the process. “I loved the thrill of establishing authorship through a deliberate effort—I had evolved from a tinkerer

The earliest image Jim Rounsevell and Carol O’Connor have of their house, from shortly after it was built in 1920, includes food. The aerial shot shows chickens and pigs behind the house, along with rows of garden veggies. Almost a century later, the current owners love cooking and

It’s appealing to imagine building anew on open land—making one’s mark on untouched acreage. But one couple in Rappahannock County took on a more unusual challenge. Lynn and Pam Pittinger bought a 93-acre farm and set about adding a modern house to an existing cluster of buildings. In the midst

A graduate of UVA’s School of Architecture, interior designer Kelly Witt got her start at Elena’s, in the same building where her design studio—a stylish mecca of fabric samples and inspiration—is currently located. From there, she lends a tailored and traditional eye to homes in

If anybody around here understands how locals prefer to drink their beer, it’s Mandi and Taylor Smack. The proprietors of Afton’s wildly popular Blue Mountain Brewery, the Smacks bought South Street Brewery in July and hired Wolf Ackerman to help them put their stamp on it before reopening it

How does a project begin for architect Adams Sutphin? First, “A question, and then listening,” he says. “And then a series of questions that become a puzzle, and then the quest to put the pieces together rationally.” That’s how he views it from his end, but Sutphin actually prides himself on

Everybody talks about marrying old and new, but there are different ways to do it. You’ve got your fixer-upper farmhouses, into which you can insert contemporary elements like stainless steel dishwashers. You’ve got your new builder homes that nod to tradition with way too much crown molding.

“This was a poor man’s farmhouse,” said Jen Fariello of the classic 1890 abode she shares with her husband, Chris Conklin, and their 5-year-old son. It’s a far cry from that now. Ten years after the couple bought the place, they’ve just completed their second major update, and the house is

In Fauquier County’s hunt country, the views are long. Roads gently rise and fall through open fields, passing horse barns, ponds and board fences, and in the far distance, the Blue Ridge draws a curving horizon. It feels like a place where the long vistas suggest a connection to the past. In

Mix it up. That seems to be the unofficial motto of Roderick Coles, the owner of local antiques shop The Curious Orange Store. He told us The Royal Tenenbaums has certainly influenced his taste when it comes to interior design. And it’s true—you can find anything from faux fox fur-covered

Do you want a handmade rug, or do want some commercially made rug? When Saul Barodofsky, co-owner of Sun Bow Trading just south of the Downtown Mall, asks you this, it’s less of a question and more of a command. A frequent lecturer at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., and a 36-year

What could be loftier than Monticello? Well, at least physically, Montalto is—by 410′. The neighboring mountain was once part of Jefferson’s holdings, and these days, after decades in private ownership, it’s returned to the fold. In 2004, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation bought the

Nine years ago, after working for 25 years at the Boston-based architecture firm he founded, Peter LaBau noticed he was no longer doing the same kind of work he’d set out to do. Rather than interfacing directly with clients and creating homes, he’d inadvertently shifted his focus to running the

We might have found the exact opposite of a McMansion. It’s upscale, not showy. It’s stylish, not trendy. It’s anything but gauche. It’s just a well-designed, beautifully-built home that has stood the test of more than six decades in ways that are kind of astonishing. Meet 2016 Spottswood Rd.

Sometimes, choosing an architect isn’t just business; it’s personal. That’s how Emily Umberger and Pradeep Rajagopalan felt when they met the folks at Wolf Ackerman in 2005. “We really got along with those guys personally,” said Rajagopalan—crucial when embarking on any project, but especially

It came as no surprise when Alice Marshall, co-owner of The Second Yard, a purveyor of decorator fabrics and home furnishings, told us that her first design memory was re-arranging dollhouse furniture. “I was born loving to decorate,” she said. “I didn’t care much about the dolls,” only about